25 Oct Activity Week – Rafting Expedition
This Activity Week Woodstock’s entire Grade 8 class ventured to Rishikesh for a rafting expedition on the Ganges, coordinated by the Himalayan River Runners. For our first two days we were based at the Himalayan Hideaway Lodge. At the nearby beach some students kayaked and swam in the river and others played ball games and built sandcastles (and mermen). One morning was spent hiking 10 kms through the lower Himalaya, winding through sal tree forests, terraced farms and villages. On Wednesday our expedition began. After a three hour drive up-stream we set sail on our eight-man rafts. The whole expedition covered 100 km and consisted of a mixture of rapids and calm waters. Oddly the calm stretches often ended up being the wettest, with raft attacks and water fights being a regular occurrence in which no one was safe. Each night we camped on a different beach. Evenings were spent playing football, eating s’mores and being entertained by a student talent show. We finished our voyage on Saturday morning, completing the full circle and arriving on the beach which we had spent our first few days on. We then made the relatively short bus journey back up to Woodstock in which the girls managed to prove that it is in fact possible to sing for three hours straight…
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